Seasons of Life
by trekkie99
Summary: A woman with a past she'd like to forget meets a man for whom past and present are intertwined. A/U. Set near the end of season 7. ***ALL UPDATES NOW POSTED ON AO3***
1. Dark Nights

Bright lights, why are there bright green and red lights? I wonder, then I see them, they walk down the hall autonomously, like robots, but these are no robots, they're worse. The Borg chase me telling me resistance is futile, I will be assimilated. I rush into the sickbay relived to be in some familiar settings as the chief medical officer I have been here most of the time. "Everyone to the escape pods, they're coming" I yell. Everyone mobilizes as I follow them out to the pods I pass the table I turn I know I shouldn't but I do and I see him he seems so peaceful but its all a lie he's dead

" Bridge to Lt. Foster "

I wake up in a cold sweat, it was a dream, the same nightmare I have been having for the past seven years ever since my husband was killed during the battle at Wolf 359.

"Lt. Foster here, go ahead" I said.

"We will be arriving at Deep Space 9 in approximately 10 minutes. You will need to report to the airlock by then"

"understood" I replied, proceeding to get out of bed and get dressed into my uniform, grabbing my bags and leaving for the airlock.


	2. New to the Station

The last of the airlock door opened and I walked out into the corridor, avoiding the other disembarking passengers as they gave me a wide berth, it did not bother me all that much, as you get used to strange looks when you are the daughter of a Klingon mother and a Human father. "

" Lieutenant" I hear turning toward the sound I see a small delegation of officers

" I am Lt Kadryna Foster, you must be Captain Sisko". I say upon approaching them

" yes welcome to DS9, this", he said gesturing toward a Bajoran women" is my first officer Colonel Kira, and my Strategic services officer, Lt. Commander Worf" he concluded gesturing toward the tall Klingon officer

"Nice to meet you all" I said.

"Colonel would you please show the Lieutenant to her quarters."

"Certainly Captain, if you'll follow me lieutenant". Replied the Bajoran woman

I followed her down. The corridor and into a turbo-lift where upon she called for level twelve.

"So do you know anything about the station lieutenant"? Asked the colonel .

" no I was wondering why you would need a new science officer, its not exactly a security position."

" our previous science officer was killed recently."

"Who was she" I inquired

" her name was Lt Commander Jadzia Dax, she was married to Commander Worf."

"Was she a relation to Curzon Dax?"

"She was the new host of the Dax symbiont after curzon died as our current counsellor, Ezri is the host of the symbiont now."

"Dax is an honoured name among my people"

"I know"

With that we turned and approached a set of doors which we walked through.

"These will be your quarters the food replicator should be working now, I believe chief O'Brien just finished fixing the ones on this level".

"Thank you sir."I replied

All of a sudden there was an alarm that went off followed by the call of "all defiant officers report for duty"

"Looks like you aren't going to have anytime to unpack right now " stated the Colonel before taking me into the corridor and flagging down a young Ferengi in a Starfleet Operation uniform

"Ensign take Lt. Foster to the Defiant please she is our new science officer"

"Aye sir this way sir." He replied I followed thinking that now is not exactly the best time to get acquainted with my new post and crew mates.


	3. The Defiant

"What's your name" I asked the young Ensign as we walked through various corridors to the airlock

"Ensign Nog" he replied

"I did not know there were any Ferengi in Starfleet" I stated

"I am the first" he replied quite proudly

With that we arrived at the airlock to the famed Defiant

"The Captain will be on the bridge, he will be able to tell you where you station is" explained Nog as we walked onboard, he pointed me in the right direction then turned toward the engineering section

I was able to find my way to the bridge without difficulty and once there I reported to Captain Sisko for duty

"You are a pilot are you not Lieutenant" inquired Sisko

"Yes sir, I have my level 7 pilots training" I replied

"Take the Helm that will be your station, it also has the science station integrate into that consel" ordered Sisko.

I aquatinted myself with the helm. It was slightly different than other starfleet helms, due to being more compact and meant for effinciency.

"We are cleared to depart" I repoted as the green light came in

"Release docking clamps, set heading 167 mark 5, toward Avenal warp 8, Engage"

I engaged the course, keeping us at impulse until we cleared he station then going all the way to warp 8.


	4. Battle at Avenal

We dropped out of warp near the back lines of the battle, it was easy to see that the Klingon fleet sent there was outnumbered at least 6 to 1 but they were fighting valiantly

"Sir the medical relief ship is under attack they're shield are failing" announced commander Worf

"Lieutenant take us in, Chief we need to get those people out of there, transport them directly to sickbay"

"Aye, sir" was all we could say.

I piloted us in close enough, then the chief began mass transports to sickbay

A voice came over the comm

"Captain I cannot handle all of these casualties by myself I need people with medical trading to report to sick bay immediately

"

"Understood Doctor" was the Captain reply

I paused before speaking, quietly and uncertainly

"Captain, I am a doctor"

He snapped his head up

"What did you say lieutenant"?

"I have a medical degree specializing in Klingon physiology"I replied, more certain this time

"Ensign take over helm, lieutenant report to sickbay" called Sisko out quickly

I nodded turned over my station and walked off the bridge into a life I had not visited for 8 years


	5. Life in a Nightmare

The lights were dim, as I made my way to sickbay. Upon reaching the door I gathered the last shreds of my courage before walking in and presenting myself to the chief medical officer.

"I am Lieutenant Foster, I am a Doctor." He stopped in his tracks and looked at me with the most curious expression.

' I studied at starfleet medical, graduated near the top of my class, and I am an expert on Klingon physiology." I stated without emotion.

"then I could most certainly use you, I've been working from the right to the left of the room do you want to start on the left and we can meet in the middle"? He asked

I nodded and moved toward the far left of the room.

I met a nurse who handed me a tricorder, and I began to scan the injured Klingon in front of me

"Prep this man for surgery" I called and moved on.

This continued for over 8 hours with my only breaks from scanning were moving to the surgery ward to quickly attemp to put a poor soldier back together.

This was nothing compared to my time at Starfleet Medical, it reminded me of the ancient world wars on earth. I could think of nothing but the battles with the Borg as I walked around the triage area attempting to keep the patients alive. This was living hell.


	6. Recovering

I woke up in the corridor outside sickbay with the man I discovered to be named Dr. Julian Bashir the chief medical officer who was also just beginning to wake up.

"We are alive." was the first thing I said, it was not really a comment, more of a question.

"Yes, but the next question is are our patients alive?" Asked the doctor before standing up and giving me a hand up as well.

" I guess we better go check" I stated evenly.

We walked into the sickbay to see a new shift of nurses running patient checks and making appropriate entries in the patient logs.

"It would appear we are no longer needed here" I said joking to the doctor.

"I do have a well trained staff, don't I." stated Doctor Bashir quite proudly.

We each parted to our attend our patients.

I walked up to a Klingon man who was just beginning to come around from his surgery the night before.

"Not in Sto'Vo'Kor" he mumbled.

"No, you made it through this battle you will have to have an honourable death in another one, which also means there are more glorious battles to be won." I replied checking his vitals with a tricorder.

"The last this I remember is being shot by a Jem'Hadar soldier." He stated more clearly now.

"You were shot and then transported aboard the Defiant where I managed to do emergency surgery and save your life" I stated.

"You are Klingon" he stated plainly.

"Yes" I replied.

"But not all Klingon there is something else in you" he stated questioningly.

"My mother was Klingon but my father was human" I replied.

"Well then doctor for not being all Klingon you seem to have done a pretty good job of keeping me from dying "

"Lieutenant," I said "Not Doctor".

"What" he asked

"I am a lieutenant, a science officer I only used to be a doctor, but I kept up my degree, in case it was ever needed.

"Well, fortunate for me that you did." Replied the officer looking down at himself. "I am Commander Cardin, son of Noggra, First Officer of the IKS Malpara."said the Klingon, introducing himself

"Lieutenant Kadryna Foster, daughter of Celes, chief science officer of the Federation space station Deep Space Nine." I introduced myself, giving my equally impressive official title. I noticed he was beginning to slip back into sleep and so excused myself, finished my rounds and left the sickbay


	7. Mess Hall Decisons

I met the rest of the officers who were grabbing a bite to eat in the mess hall, I walked up to the only working replicator and called for a raktajino and some spaghetti, one of the few human foods I preferred to my typical Klingon cuisine. I walked over and joined Dr. Bashir, Cmdr. Worf, and Chief O'Brien who were discussing the future of the patients and the Defiant.

"We should stand and fight" said Worf

"The ship is barely holding together." Cried O'Brien

"Besides we need to get the wounded to the Starbase 27, it's the only way to ensure they survive." Replied Bashir,

"What do you think lieutenant" asked Worf?

"You're probably hoping I say stay but I agree with Julian, there is no way even with both of us and all the nurses working double or even triple shifts that we can properly care for all the casutites, there is just too many"

We turned as the doors opened allowing Capt. Sisko enters into the room, when he arrived closer to the table and the conversation stopped he turned and jokingly said

"Not planing a mutiny, I hope"

"No, sir" replied Worf with a shocked expression on his face

"Relax commander it was only a joke my commanding officer used to say when he saw all his senior officers sitting together and the conversation stopped when he got close." Explained the Captain

"I have decided that we will be turning back and going to the starbase, General Martok has agreed that it would be acceptable to have a honourable defeat, this one time only, of course." Said the Captain

"This is a nonnegotiable decision, so no countering this one, we need to get the casualties to the starbase with the ship in one piece." Continued the Captain before taking his leave and going back to his station with us following behind


	8. All the Way Home

"Arriving on the bridge the captain bid me take my station, before I set the corrected course at the fastest speed we could manage, which was only warp 3. We limped back behind our lines, and then set the quickest course to starbase 27 where the Klingon casualties would be transferred to various Klingon ships to be either put back on duty or transferred to a Klingon medical ship or even back to Qo'nos for the few unfortunate casualties who did not survive the battle. I went often to sick bay and talked to the officers there, attempted to keep their pipits up, but after I got permission from the captain to share some of my bloodwine with them it really did not take much. We arrived at the starbase almost four days later, we offloaded the Klingon officers and stayed a few hours for Chief O'Brien along with some station personnel to begin repairs to the ship, at least enough so we could manage warp seven. It took us almost a week to return to the station and I was never as glad to step onto a station as I was when we docked.


	9. An Uninvited Reminder

I returned to my quarters, who I walked in the first thing I noticed was a box on the floor. It took me only a minute to realize just what it contained. I opened it. As I reached in memories I had suppressed for years came flooding back. I couldn't believe that even after nearly eight years it all looked, felt and even smelt the same. The first item I picked up was a box labeled Lt. Micheal Foster, I knew it contained my late husbands personal effects, his uniform and a few things I managed to recover from the ship after wolf 359, I was lifting it to move it out of the way, that was a part of my life I wanted to move on from, when it opened unexpectedly.

"the latch must have broken" I mumbled as all of the objects fell out of the box, I began picking up the spilt items when I spotted something I hadn't seen before. It was a box, rather small and plain looking, except for the intricate designs on the top. I recognized them immediately as a copy of ancient Klingon painting that depicted Kahless the Unforgettable and his mate Lukara, after they defeat the troops of Molor, easily considered the most romantic of all Klingon paitings. In the top there was also the words "to Ryna the love of my life, my Lukara". I hurled the box across my quarters, it bounced off the wall and spilled its contents all over the floor, it was a bunch of papers, not PADDs, actual paper. I crawled over, and examined one of the packages, it's appeared to be letters, organized by month and tied off with string. Taking the package labeled 1, I opened it and began to read the first letter

 _My dearest Ryna,_

 _I don't even know where to begin to tell you of my love, tonight is our wedding and I have never been happier in my life. I am going to write these letters for you and present them as my gift to you for our first anniversary, I cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives…_

I couldn't read anymore, I collected the letters and put them in the box and put it all into the larger storage box, storing the box in my closet, I went to bed.


	10. Replimat Discussions

I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn't get the letters out of my mind. Sure Micheal had written me love notes before, but never letters, and he never spoke of the future, while we had planned to spend the rest of our lives together, we were young and it was not something we often spoke of. I was thinking over all of this while at the replimat.

"Something on your mind ?" asked Colonel Kira as she took the seat opposite me.

A little startled to have someone speaking to me I looked up up questioningly.

"That's your third raktajino that I've seen you drink today." She stated.

"I didn't sleep very well last night" I replied quietly.

"So I repeat my question, something on your mind".

"Have you ever lost someone you loved Colonel," seeing the slightly uncomfortable look on her face I quickly said "Sorry that was a personal question".

"No its all right, I lost many friends during The Occupation" she replied.

"I don't mean a friend" I started "I mean someone closer than that".

"I did once, he was very special to me, why" she asked.

"I lost my husband, but I just discovered that he left some letters and a message for me. I had no idea".

"Have you read them" she asked.

"I tried but… its been eight years it shouldn't feel like this" I said.

Kira looked at me with concern and said "If there's anything I know about love is if you truly felt it the hurt never completely goes away, you will always carry them with you, but a note or message can help heal the scars".

I looked at her and saw that she truly felt what she as saying was true.

"Read the letters and listen to the message" she said as she got up to leave.

"Thanks Colonel" I said.

"Call me Nerys" she said.

"Kaddy " I replied before getting up myself and going back to my quarters determined to read the letters and watch the message, after all I was a doctor I knew the importance of healing scars.


	11. Open Your Heart

When I returned to my quarters the first thing I did was to get out the isoliner rod containing Michael's final message. I inserted it into the computer interface and waited for it to download. As I popped up on the scene I saw his face and almost stopped the recording, but I knew I needed to see this

 _" Hello my dearest Ryna I am recording this before we arrive at Wolf 359 with the hope that you will never have to watch it but just in case I want you to know just how much I love you, and am so proud of all you have accomplished I also want to know that I have never been happier than whe you are with me this last few months have been the best in my life, I also want to tell you that if you are watching this it means that you are now the starfleet widow I never wanted you to be so I ask that you try and find the happiness that we had and open your heart to love again, I will always love you, goodbye my darling."_

At first all I feel is anger, then a need to work out my frustrations, I go to the Ferengi's bar and rent an hour in one of the holosuites. A strong calisthenics program was the only solution.


	12. Who is This Man?

We had been standing outside one of the holosuites for over twenty minutes when the Ferengi finally said

"It won't work Lieutenant, you will have to choose one of the programs I have in stock or convert this program to be comparable with Cardassian systems"

If we had not been trying for so long I may have snapped his neck, but I knew control and this was a very good time to exercise it.

"Do you have Klingon exercise programs" I finally relented

"Yes, I have one" he said and very quickly ran to the bar to get the data rod. He seemed almost in a panic to please me, but seeing the other Klingons he had had contact with I do not doubt that he was afraid of just what I could do when angered.

"It's not much to look at but Cmdr. Worf seems to enjoy it, that is his frown is slightly less pronounced when he is done in the holosuite" said the Ferengi as he looked slightly annoyed.

"This is will do then, at least until I convert my program."

He nodded and after handing me the program he very nearly ran away.

I walked into the holosuite and called out

"Begin program".

The next hour was spent in a violent flurry of fighting and defending, when my time was up I called out for the program to end, and I walked out of the room , now feeling much more relaxed, I couldn't help but wonder who this . Worf truly was.


	13. Assist Cardassia?

As I was walking towards the turbolift to ops. The next day I heard a call over the comm

"Senior officers report to the ward room"

I had no idea what this call could be referring to, ever since the federation had begun to go on the offensive we had no reason for staff meetings, but I reported all the same, a feeling of curiosity growing in me.

Walking into the wardroom I saw that everyone was there excluding Capt. Sisko, everyone seemed equally perplexed as to the reason for this meeting.

"Everyone take a seat" boomed Sisko as he walked in with a Cardassian man that I had come to know was called Garek, who worked for starfleet intelligence.

He reached for the computer control and we all turned to watch a transmission from Legat Damar asking for federation help with the new Cardassian resistance. After finishing the transmission Sisko turned to all of us and said

"The federation council has decided to send the help Damar has requested, in the form of two officers, Colonel Kira, Constable Odo, and Mr. Garak. I also decided that I don't want the dominion to get there hands on one of our new shuttles, so Mr. Worf and Lt. Foster you will be piloting the shuttle there, and back." He said this with a definite finality that was so that we could only agree to be at the airlock at 0600 hours the next day.


	14. Preflight

The next day when I arrived at the airlock a full thirty minutes early I was surprised to see Cmdr. Worf already running the routine checks, and preparing to leave the station. This was mildly confusing because according to the mission briefing I would be responsible for the piloting, while he manned sensors and weapons.

"I can do that" I say walking in and taking my station.

"You were not here" he replied, then continued "I prefer to have the preflight checks done early."

"I see…well I can take over from here" I said, before quickly adding "if that's alright with you sir." When I saw his face that conveyed very thinly covered annoyance.

"Very well, this is the navigational array" he said gesturing to a series of buttons, before I interrupted him by saying

"Sir, I am a level seven pilot, and I have extensive training in shuttle craft"

He appeared slightly surprised, but allowed me to take over the Helm and finish the preflight, while ensuring all of the supplies Damar needed were stored in the cargo hold


	15. Trouble

We encountered no problems arriving at the rendezvous with Damar, and all of the supplies, and officers were safely transferred aboard his ship. It was afterward that the problems began. We were nearly to the edge of Dominion space, almost home free when a Jem'Hadar ship came seemingly out of nowhere, we sprung into action.

"You take care of the Jem'Hadar, I'll take us down to impulse" I called out to Worf, taking the ship out of warp to give us an edge of maneuverability.

It took several tension filled and stressful moments before we were able to disable the ships engines, but it managed to fire off one lucky shot just as I was preparing to take us to warp, hitting our main starboard thruster during the ignition sequence, the shuttle was doomed.

"Scan for an M-Class planet" called out Worf

"The planet below us is M-Class" I answered

"Look for a place to land" he commanded

I looked but after seeing the readings on my panel I called out

"How about right here" as we crashed into trees, and tore up the soil, before finally stopping on the edge of a cliff.we managed to climb out of the back of the shuttle with whatever we could grab before the shuttle fell over the edge crashing into a ball of flames completely destroyed.


	16. Camp

"We should move camp tonight" stated Worf as he laid down the animal he had hunted.

"We just moved two nights ago, do we really need to move again" I asked, exhausted from my day trying to extend my communicator's range using a tricorder.

"Do not argue with me, if you had brought the emergency comm unit on your way out we would already be back on the station." he growled.

"You could have grabbed a comm unit as well, this is not all my fault" he looked at me quite menacingly, but my Klingon temper was ignited so I continued, "or you could help me with the communicator instead of going off on wild hunts and demanding we move camp almost every day"

"We need to move camp, or the Jem'Hadar will find us" he countered.

"We haven't seen any Jem'Hadar since we crashed here, three weeks ago!" I yelled indignantly. He walked towards me still holding his hand made spear, I picked up the nearest large branch and we attacked each their as if they were bat'leths that finally ended in grabbing each other in a passionate kiss that seemed to never end.


	17. Rescue

When I awoke I turned over and gave Worf a light kiss, he awoke and kissed me back very gently. All the arguing of yesterday had faded away and we were as a pair of lovesick teenagers, who always wanted to be together. Suddenly a noise emanated from my comm badge, it was very distorted but we sprung into action, Worf with gathering the camp and myself with trying to clear the signal enough to know what they were saying.

"It may be the Jem'Hadar" warned Worf "we should move quickly and disable the transponder"

"No, its not whoever is transmitting is using a Bajoran frequency, and one that's only just started being used on the station." I replied continuing my work until we hear

 _"This is Commander Kira Nerys we are on our way, rendezvous at the following coordinates in two days"_

I received the coordinates just before the commander stopped transmitting.

"That settles that, no Jem'Hadar, just a rescue" I called out to Worf. "Commander Kira is on her way we have to meet them at a set of coordinates approximately twenty three kilometres from here in two days." I continued

"Then we had better begin moving, this terrain is difficult and we have a large amount of equipment" he replied. We packed up our campsite and began walking. We walked all day, and for a good portion of the night, we did not want to mss the rendezvous. We didn't talk much for those two days, the terrain reminded me of the Vulcan Forge, but with more hills, the heat was also comparable, on the second day we ran out of water, even our reserves were gone and we had not seen any streams for over ten hours. We were more than happy when we heard the sound of a transmission on a Bajoran frequency telling us to prepare to beam up.


End file.
